Cuttack: Instead of spending his time reading or playing with children of his age, an 11-year-old child in Cuttack has been moving around the silver city selling tea in order to share the burden of his family.
Shankar Choudhury, who is known as Dipu, is the son of Suresh Choudhury, a tea seller. His family consists of his father, a mentally ill mother, a visually challenged and mentally ill elder brother, and an elder sister studying in Class 10.
Dipu’s father Suresh is a native of Haripur village in Jajpur. It has been around 50 years since he is staying in Cuttack. He has been running a tea shop to sustain his family, but due to the financial crisis, he has been unable to provide healthcare to both his wife and elder son.
While the earning from the tea shop is not sufficient to feed the family of five, the lockdown and the shutdown going on for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic took away all the happiness of his family. Even getting two meals a day has often been a concern for Dipu’s family.
In this case, the only hope for the Suresh was getting a ration card. He did several rounds of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) office in the hope of getting a ration card but to no avail.
Seeing this state of affairs in the family, Dipu, who was studying in the fifth grade, took the burden of his family on his head.
At around 8 am every day, Dipu takes out his bicycle and goes out for selling tea. He visits home for lunch and again leaves to earn for his family. The 11-year-old daily travels about 15 to 20 km to different parts of Cuttack. He returns home at night with whatever he has earned.
“Everything is possible if you have strong willpower. I will not give up on the situation even if I am young. God has given me hands and feet, I will fight for the bright future of myself and my family. The results are sure to come.” says Dipu.
